RUSSIA WAS FIRST

ROCKET SCIENCE

MEN OF MERCURY

SPACE WALK

TRAGEDY

TO THE MOON AND BACK

LIFE PLANETARIUM

LIFE HOMEPAGE

Contemplating the Russian lead in space, it is ironic to recall that half a century ago an American genius named Robert Goddard was blazing a pioneering trail in rocketry. Goddard launched small rockets in Massachusetts, later launched bigger ones in New Mexico, and acquired the first patents for liquid-fuel engines. The U.S. paid little attention to Goddard, and his discoveries lay dormant. But the Germans eagerly took up Goddard's work in the 1930s. From it they developed the V-2. The Russians got some pointers from these to add to their own experience with rocketry. The end result was the powerful rocket engines that put Yuri Gagarin into orbit.

The U.S. too built liquid-fuel rockets with the help of German scientists. But the U.S. chose to build smaller ones than the Russians, and cannot now match Russia in the brute thrust needed for the spectacular feats that have captured the world's imaginat ion.

Meanwhile the U.S. has independently developed and excelled at solid-fuel propulsion. Many scientists believe the best immediate hope for passing the Russians lies in big solid-fueled boosters. But so far the U.S. has given its greatest effort to the mass ive liquid-fuel Saturn, a cluster of eight already existing Redstone engines, only slightly modified. The Saturn, when operational in 1964, should provide a thrust of 1.5 million pounds, thus outclassing the current Soviet booster. The U.S. is also workin g on the F-1 (above), a single liquid-fueled engine which would equal Saturn's eight engines in thrust. When it is eventually ready (1968-1970), it can presumably be clustered to generate many million pounds of thrust.